


the evidence of your eyes

by desastrista



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Corporate Espionage, Guion Deserves A Warning Tag All Of His Own, M/M, Mentions of Pedophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 03:59:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7875307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desastrista/pseuds/desastrista
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captive Prince Week Day 6 - Secrets</p><p>Soulmate AU -- Aimeric's given a mission, Jord is the mark. It's supposed to be straightforward. It's not.</p><p>Aimeric keeps secrets: from Jord, from his family, from himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the evidence of your eyes

Aimeric read over Jord’s dating profile twice before he wrote his own. His father had given him Jord’s name, and Aimeric had spent a few hours searching online for anything he could find on this guy. He’d really hit the jackpot when he stumbled upon the dating profile.

Aimeric had never used a dating site before, so he did a quick scan of other people’s profiles to see what was normal. A lot of the profiles talked about their take on the question of tattoos – when it would be okay to show the tattoos to each other, whether it would be a dealbreaker if the tattoos didn’t match, that kind of thing. 

Everyone had a tattoo of the first words their soulmate would say to them written somewhere on their body. The words appeared unpredictably on the body sometime during puberty. Some people were obsessed with the quest to find their soulmate. Aimeric was not one of those people. His words were on his left shoulder blade. Not easily seen by him, not easily seen by strangers. Easy enough to forget. 

There were some people who showed their tattoos on the photos they uploaded. Aimeric thought that was way too much. Even though it didn’t really matter, he was glad to see that wherever Jord had his words written, he kept them out of photos.

For his part, Aimeric chose the best photos he had on hand and tried to tailor his profile to what he thought Jord would like to see. He ended up with something close to what he probably would have said anyway – it surprised him how little editing the job required. He did lie about being more into sports than he really was, though. Profile complete, he sent Jord a message talking about how he had noticed his profile and how much he liked it. 

Jord responded within a few hours. They messaged back and forth a few days before deciding to grab drinks that weekend. 

It surprised Aimeric how easy it was to talk with Jord. But, he supposed, that just made it all the easier for him to complete the mission he’d been given. 

 

***** 

 

The day before he was supposed to go out for drinks with Jord, his father sent him a message asking for an update. 

“I’m working on it,” Aimeric responded. “Give me a few days.” 

“I was going to have dinner with the Regent tomorrow. Not official business.” Aimeric winced. To an outside observer, perhaps it might have sounded like an innocuous comment. A father updating his son that he was going to dinner with the CEO of the company where he worked.

But the real meaning of the message, the meaning that Aimeric read was: I’m going to be talking about you to him. 

Aimeric had hoped to have better news to deliver before his father next talked to the Regent. He so wanted his father to speak well of him. 

“I’ll be working tomorrow,” Aimeric responded. 

 

****** 

 

The place that Jord had suggested they go for drinks was just south of downtown. Aimeric arrived there first; he grabbed a chair and carefully hung his jacket on the back of it. The bar seemed a bit dull, if Aimeric was being honest. Very quiet. Very casual. But the music they had on was decent, at least. He grabbed a menu and was impressed by the prices. Maybe this place would be pretty decent after all. 

“Aimeric?” he heard a voice say. He turned around in his chair. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” 

It was easy enough to identify Jord – he looked like his profile picture. “Not at all,” Aimeric smiled. He gave a wave of the menu, “I’ve been considering a scotch.”

Jord gave an incongruously wide smile at his words. “It’s a good choice,” he said, to an Aimeric doing his best to hide his confusion. But the moment passed and the rest of the date went – surprisingly well. Of course, Aimeric was trying his best. He’d vowed to be on his best behavior. He would laugh at everything that Jord said and be endlessly clever with what he said. 

It didn’t quite go according to plan.

They drank and talked a few hours and the conversation was natural. Aimeric was surprised at how easy it was to relax around Jord. To be himself. Perhaps not, given the circumstances, the fullest version of himself. But more of himself than he was used to. At the end of the night, it was Jord’s idea to go back to his apartment. Of course going back to Jord’s place had been Aimeric’s intentions all along. But it felt like a surprisingly natural next step.

They were soon making out on Jord’s bed. Aimeric took off his shirt. He went to help remove Jord’s. While he was doing that, he couldn’t help but notice the tattoo on Jord’s left side. His smile faded somewhat at the sight of the words. “Not at all,” he read out loud, “I’ve been considering a scotch.” Aimeric briefly wished he’d ordered a bourbon instead. But he forced the thought out of his mind and gave Jord a playful look. “Date a lot of guys who like scotch?” 

“Just one or two,” Jord said, and he cupped Aimeric’s cheek in his hand and drew him forward for another kiss. 

It was a strange coincidence, Aimeric told himself, even as his tongue explored Jord’s mouth. Nothing more. The only note slightly off in an otherwise well-played plan. 

 

****** 

 

When Aimeric was confident that Jord was asleep, he got up and walked around the apartment. It was a relatively small apartment. It didn’t take him long to find what he had been looking for. 

Jord kept his work keycard in his wallet and his wallet on top of the dresser. Aimeric took out the RFID scanner he had been keeping in his jacket’s inner pocket. It hadn’t really been cold enough to justify the jacket, but Jord hadn’t asked why he brought it. Aimeric had been willing to lie about a bad weather report. The truth was there was a very simple reason Aimeric had brought it along: it was the only item of clothing Aimeric had with a zipper that could both fit the RFID scanner and keep it safely out of sight. 

He held the scanner up to the keycard. The light turned green, indicating the data on the card had been successfully copied. Satisfied, Aimeric put the card back into the wallet and the wallet back exactly as he’d found it and zipped the scanner back inside his coat pocket. 

Aimeric’s keys and wallet were lying only a few feet away. Jord shifted in his sleep as Aimeric went to pick them up. Aimeric turned to look back at the bed. He couldn’t help but let his gaze linger. 

He should go. He knew he should go. The longer he spent with Jord, the more opportunities he gave Jord to discover what he had done. Normal people didn’t carry around RFID scanners with them. Going on a date, having fun, leaving before your date woke up. That was normal. 

He thought of his father’s message. _I’m seeing the Regent tomorrow._ His father had sent him that RFID scanner. He’d be expecting it back sometime soon. He wouldn’t appreciate Aimeric doing anything that might risk the data he had collected. The Regent wouldn’t want Aimeric to do anything that risked that data. 

But still Aimeric couldn’t deny that he had fun last night. Slowly, Aimeric crawled back into bed. By the time he woke up again, Jord was already up. He peppered Aimeric with kisses and they went a second round before Aimeric had had even gotten a chance to get out of bed. Jord made pancakes for Aimeric that morning. No one had made breakfast for Aimeric in a long time.

He knew it was a dumb thing to do, but he gave Jord his number before he went home. 

 

****** 

 

It was going to be his parent’s anniversary soon, Aimeric knew. His mom liked chardonnays, so he went out and bought her a nice bottle. He made sure to get a box that was too large and then he put the RFID scanner in, made a fake bottom, put in the wine, and mailed it to his parent’s address. 

“Just sent you an anniversary gift. Make sure you give it to Mom,” he messaged his father as he dropped the package off for delivery.

Guion had given Aimeric some background on this mission of his. There was a nice, fat government contract that the Regent was trying to land. It was worth millions. It would open up opportunities in markets that they’d never even dreamed about. It should have been an easy contract to land. 

The only problem was Laurent. 

Laurent used to work at the same company as the Regent and Guion. A young star, he had been heavily favored by the board to succeed his father, who had stepped down for health related reasons earlier than expected. But a feud had developed between Laurent and the Regent – no one quite knew the exact cause – and it escalated to the point where Laurent left the company and, with the help of his Akielon husband, launched a company of his own. 

In public, the Regent – and Guion – maintained that they were not concerned about this new rival, that they were the leaders in the market and would maintain that position. 

In private, well – what Aimeric was doing was completely off-the-books. 

Jord ran security for Laurent’s company. It was still a small operation, so the security was pretty minimal. But the Regent had wanted to gain access to the building, and Aimeric had helped secure that for him. 

The thought of the Regent sparked something in Aimeric’s memory. It was a minute before he could place the thought, and then it came back to him suddenly – the sight of the words he had spoken at the bar written out on Jord’s ribs. A coincidence, he’d told himself. Just a very strange coincidence. 

The first thing that Aimeric did when he got home from mailing the package was to go to the bathroom and take off his shirt. He turned around to see in the mirror the words as they were written out on his skin. 

“Aimeric, I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” 

Aimeric took a moment to make himself a drink. It was still early in the day, but he didn’t care. Just as he’d sat down on the couch, drink in hand, his phone vibrated. Jord had sent him a message saying that he’d had fun and asking if he wanted to hang out again. 

Aimeric threw his phone to the other side of the couch. It would be hours before he could bring himself to look at it again. 

 

****** 

 

Guion was the Senior Vice President of Sales. 

He had not held that title ten years ago. He hadn’t been a Vice President ten years ago. He hadn’t even been close.

Aimeric had changed all that. Introducing Aimeric to the Regent had changed all that. Growing up in the shadow of three older brothers, Aimeric had loved the attention that the Regent gave him and him alone, even if he didn’t understand or feel comfortable with some of what the Regent wanted from him. It was okay, his father had told him. The Regent loved him. That made it all okay. 

That had been about ten years ago. Aimeric had not seen the Regent in person since then. But his father was always talking about how the Regent asked after Aimeric, how the Regent missed him, how the Regent wanted to see him again but could not for this reason or that. 

The words had appeared on Aimeric’s back not long after he turned sixteen. He had been so excited for them to arrive. He’d spent the past year or so checking every morning, looking over his whole body, checking in the mirror, seeing if that would be the day he would finally spot them. He knew that the words would spell out the first words his soulmate spoke to him. He had assumed it would be the first words the Regent had spoken to him. 

Aimeric still remembered looking in the mirror and seeing the words on his back for the first time. He still remembered how his face had fallen when he realized he did not recognize the words at all. At first, he consoled himself that he had met the Regent many years ago, and maybe he just didn’t correctly remember what the Regent had said to him. Later, he would think that maybe he had gotten it all wrong, and what was written were the first words the Regent would say to him when they met again at long last. 

And then after a while, Aimeric stopped caring about the words. They were on his back. People didn’t ask him questions about them. They were easy enough for Aimeric to ignore. 

He hadn’t had to think about the words in a long time. He didn’t want to think about them. 

He remembered how easy it had been to talk with Jord. He hadn’t connected with someone like that in a while. This was the first year that Aimeric was living on his own. All that alone time was starting to take its toll. 

He told himself that, even though his father swore his role in this corporate intrigue would be brief, it would still be a good idea to keep in touch with Jord in case the Regent needed more information about Laurent’s company. 

And surely there were mistakes with this whole soulmates writing. After all, him and Jord. What were the odds? 

He texted Jord back several hours later and apologized for not getting back to him sooner. He said he had gotten caught up with things at work. 

 

****** 

 

A few days later, Aimeric got an email from his father. It was a forwarded message. A USB drive was being shipped to his address. The email just said “If you happen to run into Jord again.” 

Aimeric messaged his father right away. “I got your email,” he said. “I might need some more information.” 

Guion didn’t respond right away. Instead, he called later that night. 

Most of the time, they communicated via text or email. It was easier with his father’s schedule. Aimeric preferred texting to talking. But when something urgent happened – or something where his father did not want to leave a paper trail – that was when his father called. 

Guion began the call with some polite smalltalk. He asked about Aimeric’s job – it was fine, Aimeric said, left him plenty of time for stuff outside work. (Guion just made some polite non-committal noises at this.) He asked about the new apartment – it was okay, Aimeric said, a little too expensive, but the neighborhood was nice. He got the same polite non-committal noise again in response. Aimeric asked about mom, how she was doing, how the anniversary dinner had gone. Fine, Guion said, just fine. 

And then, finally: “In terms of the wine you sent – that was good work, getting the RFID scanner. The Regent and I were so proud of you. But it turns out it wasn’t enough. Just getting after-hours access wasn’t enough. And what we were thinking – well, really, this is the Regent’s idea, is that maybe we could put your particular skillset to use to get what we need.” 

Aimeric felt a familiar rush of pride at the praise, but he tried to keep it out of his voice. “I’m not even sure what it is you are looking for.” 

Guion gave a sigh. “Laurent’s company will be putting in a bid for the government contract we hope to win. Need to win, really. We want to find out what their offer is, so that we can make sure our deal is better. But everything about the contract is closed, of course. If we want to find out what their offer is, we’ll have to get it from the source.” A pause, then. “Jord, the man you used to get the RFID scanner – are you still in communication with him?” 

Aimeric thought of the last message he had gotten from Jord. It had been an invitation to dinner. It had included a kissy face emoji. Aimeric paused. He wanted to give the impression of thinking about the question. He was trying to make sure his voice was under control. 

“I think,” he said finally, “that I’d be able to get back in touch with him sometime soon.” 

“Good,” Guion said. If he had noticed anything off in Aimeric’s answer, he gave no indication. “Move quickly, but not so quickly as to arouse any suspicion. We don’t want to give any reason for Laurent to think something is amiss. And he is a wily one. So be careful. We’ll need this document as soon as you can get it. Do you think you can do that?” 

“I think so,” Aimeric said. His voice sounded far away. It felt like someone else was talking for him.

“We’re both so proud of you. You’re doing amazing work.” 

The line went dead as his father hung up. It took Aimeric a moment to hang up too. 

 

****** 

 

The restaurant that Jord had chosen was nice enough. Aimeric’s attention was on the drink menu. It had a good selection, which was really what he needed tonight. Aimeric contemplated ordering a whiskey, thought better of it, and got a gin and tonic instead. It was distinctly not as good, but he forced himself to drink it. 

Jord was smiling at him from across the table. He hadn’t really stopped smiling since he’d arrived. Aimeric found it a little alarming. He tried to smile too, though, but he doubted whether it looked sincere. 

“So, how has work been?” Aimeric mentally winced as the words left his mouth. It had seemed like such an innocuous question. But he should not be talking to Jord about work. Or maybe he should. He didn’t know. 

Jord just shrugged. “It’s been a little crazy recently,” he said. “Big deadline approaching, so my boss has been getting intense. Working really late hours. Getting a little paranoid about security.” 

“Doesn’t sound like you have a very nice boss,” Aimeric said before he could stop himself. He’d heard so many horror stories about Laurent from Guion. He was not going to mention that, though. 

Jord just laughed. “Yeah, I know but – this may sound hard to believe, but he’s actually a really great boss once you get to know him. He really cares about people. He never expects more of you than he expects of himself. What’s your boss like?”

“A bit distant,” Aimeric said. “Not really the communicative type. I don’t really know if he cares.” 

Aimeric’s real job was working downtown as a paralegal. His boss there was a nice, if slightly absent-minded, lady. He hadn’t thought of her until he was done answering. It was a lie – an unnecessary lie – and Aimeric wasn’t sure why he’d said it. 

Except that it felt more like the truth than the truth did. 

Aimeric gave another weak smile, and tried to change the subject. After a few more minutes of talking, though, it was Jord who finally asked, “Aimeric, did you notice that our tattoos matched?” 

Aimeric felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. He tried to keep the smile on his face. It quickly became a failed endeavor. “Yeah,” he said after a moment. “Yeah, I noticed.” 

“But that’s good news, isn’t it? You just – don’t seem very happy about it.” 

Aimeric ran his hand through his hair. “I never,” he started. “I never really paid much attention to those kinds of things, you know?” Jord just looked politely confused. Aimeric knew he was going to have to give a better reason. For a lot of reasons, telling the truth was not distinctly not an option now. He tried to think of any other excuse why he might not be eager to have potentially found his soulmate. Everyone was supposed to be so eager. “I worry it might be a little early to tell?” he finally ventured. “I mean, some people do get false positives.” 

Jord gave a serious nod. “Of course,” he said. “I mean, we don’t have to jump into anything right away.” 

“Yeah,” Aimeric said. His voice sounded flat. Jord’s expression looked pained and Aimeric scrambled to try to fix things. “I mean, I think – I really liked our last date. Really liked it. I just – want to make sure, that’s all.”

“Did you ever think you were matched to someone and found out you were wrong?” 

Aimeric’s stomach should not have given the lurch it did. “What do you mean?” he asked, too quickly. 

“I mean, what you were saying earlier – false positives, and stuff. Really common conversations, I guess. I always thought I was lucky, because at least there’s something specific about a kind of drink and how many situations are you in where someone is talking about whiskey but – I mean, I guess if you’re worried about that, I understand.” And there again, that unfaltering, generous smile. 

Aimeric felt his cheeks turning red. “Thanks,” he said. “Yeah, I think – that might be the right approach, at least for right now.” 

The rest of the dinner went well. Aimeric finished the gin and tonic with a grimace. “Definitely should have gotten a scotch,” he said. 

 

****** 

 

During downtime at work, Aimeric had started to look into how leaks from big companies happened. Surely, he told himself, surely there was some way out there companies accidentally leaked these big documents without an employee – say, the head of security – messing up and accidentally compromising anything important. From what he read, a lot of it seemed to come from more sophisticated hackers, and Aimeric didn’t have the resources to pull anything like that off. 

He did find a case of a company that had published its documents online but thought they were safe because there was nothing linking to them. A computer program had detected the document however and the hackers had managed to get the company information before it was ever supposed to be publicly available. 

Aimeric didn’t know anything about computers but he threw himself into the work when he had time. There looked like a lot of tutorials for this kind of stuff online, too. He mentioned offhand to his boss that he was learning to code and she looked proud. “That’s a useful skill,” she pointed out. 

“Yeah,” was all he could think to say. He didn’t want to add what it was useful for. 

It was a great project to throw himself into for a while, while he and Jord went out to see a movie together or spent the day at the aquarium. 

He gave himself two weeks to pull it together. He learned a bit about code, but didn’t get anything off the ground. Jord had bought him a stuffed shark at the aquarium, however, which he kept near his keyboard as he tried to code. 

 

***** 

 

He told his father that he was doing everything he could to find the document he wanted. 

From a certain perspective, this was true. Aimeric did keep working at the project. But he was also doing everything in his power to avoid involving Jord. To do that meant he did everything in his power to make sure that Jord’s work stayed in the office and away from him. 

What a nasty setback it was for Aimeric when he met Laurent. 

He hadn’t been expecting to meet Laurent. Aimeric was meeting Jord at a bar after work. It just so happened that Laurent was leaving just as he was arriving. Jord politely made the introductions. Aimeric could only muster a tepid smile. Laurent’s attitude bordered on hostile. At first Aimeric wasn’t sure why, but Laurent did not hesitate to make his reasons evident. 

“You’re Guion’s son, right?” Laurent asked. If Aimeric hadn’t known better, he might have called Laurent’s tone sweet. It was a tone that made Aimeric’s hair on the back of his neck stand up. 

He could only muster a slight nod in response. “You know, I think Guion works for my uncle,” Laurent pressed further. 

Aimeric just gave a bland smile. “Yeah, he does,” he said. “Or at least, last I knew. I don’t talk to my dad a whole lot these days.” He gave a shrug. “You know how it is, strike out on your own, that kind of thing.” 

Laurent’s expression was cool. “I do know something about distance from family, yes.” He looked almost distracted for a minute but then he continued, “Well, Jord, I will see you tomorrow. I’m glad to hear that you two matched. Say, have you gone to the beach yet? I hear it’s going to warm up a lot this weekend, should be good beach weather.” Jord and Aimeric were both giving him blank looks. With a thin, horribly faked smile Laurent finished, “You should go. Really great opportunity to see your date go swimming.” 

He turned to leave. Aimeric watched him go. Laurent had left a foul taste in his mouth. (Although, of course, a small voice pointed out, Laurent’s suspicions weren’t really _wrong_.) 

“Well, the beach does sound fun. Would you be interested?” Jord said. Laurent had given the advice almost as a sneer, but Jord seemed genuine in the request. 

Aimeric wanted to laugh. He knew why Laurent had suggested the beach. A fake tattoo might wash off in the water. Faking a soulmate tattoo to get close to someone: it sounded like something his father would have suggested. And so it seemed, naturally, it was one of the first things Laurent suspected. 

“Beach sounds great,” Aimeric said. A contrary pride swelled in him. He’d had these words on his skin for years: they weren’t going to come off in a little water. 

It was only the next day did he realize that that was the first time he’d admitted to himself that maybe the soulmate connection he had with Jord could be genuine. 

 

****** 

 

They did end up going to the beach that weekend. It was fun, although Aimeric had to slather on a lot of sunscreen to avoid getting burned. It was all worth it when Jord suggested they go back to his place afterwards. Aimeric took a shower to get all the sand and oil off. Jord joined him. 

Aimeric knew he was starting to spend a lot of time over at Jord’s. There were all these little things about the apartment Aimeric now knew. Like the fact that Jord had a decent dining room table but preferred to eat in the kitchen or in front of the TV. Or how Jord thought his mattress was too soft and was looking for a replacement that wouldn’t break his budget. Or the fact that Jord had bought the sofa used from his friend and had washed all the covers twice before he ever used it. 

There was some stuff Aimeric wish he didn’t know. He knew Jord tended to keep his keys and wallet on the dining room table when he was home. Aimeric wished he could get rid of the memory of sneaking around Jord’s apartment looking for the keycard. But there were a lot of things Aimeric wished for that he wasn’t going to get.

One Tuesday night, Aimeric was over. They were watching a movie together. Jord had gotten up to make some popcorn before they got started. Aimeric stayed on the couch. He heard a small chime. He checked his phone, but there was nothing. That was when he saw that Jord had left his phone on the couch. Aimeric leaned over. There was an email. From Laurent. The subject read “Strategy session.” 

Aimeric bid a hasty retreat to his own side of the couch. 

“Did something happen?” Jord asked when he came back. 

“Huh?” asked Aimeric, who hadn’t realized he’d been lost in his own thoughts. 

“You look worried.” 

“Nah, I’m fine,” Aimeric gave a weak smile. “Just thinking about work stuff, that’s all.” 

Jord checked his phone. He let out an amused huff. “Looks like you’re not alone,” he said. “Laurent just emailed me.” 

“Oh?” Aimeric asked, as if he didn’t know. The reaction was instinctive. The lies came that easily to him. “It seems late for that kind of thing.” 

“It is. Laurent works too much,” Jord said. “He should be at home now. Catching up on some movies.” 

“I think that sounds like a good plan,” Aimeric said with a smile. Jord leaned over to kiss him. 

 

******* 

 

It had been about a month since his father gave him the assignment. He’d checked in two weeks ago, and Aimeric had reported that he needed more time. 

Today, Guion sent him another message, asking for another update. And then he sent a follow up message. “I’m having dinner with the Regent tomorrow.” 

Something twisted in Aimeric’s stomach. He was going to have dinner with Jord tomorrow. Aimeric had had dinner with Jord many times already. And he’d known Jord for less than a month. 

His response to his father was quick. He didn’t even acknowledge his father’s question. He just asked one of his own. “When am I going to see the Regent?” 

Guion’s reply was also quick. “You know how busy he is.” 

Aimeric wondered how someone could be too busy for him for more than a decade. 

He didn’t ask his father that, though. Instead, he asked, “When will he not be busy?”

“Aimeric,” his father’s reply was terse. “what has gotten into you?” 

What _had_ gotten into him? He had never pushed his father on this question before. After a few years, he had basically stopped asking entirely if the Regent would see him again. He’d been content with the man he knew through his father’s commentary. _The Regent asked about you today. The Regent misses you._ If Aimeric was being honest with himself, maybe he had preferred it that way. All the years when he couldn’t get his parents’ attention, or when he felt overshadowed by his brothers, he’d always been able to console himself that the Regent wouldn’t have treated him like that, that if the Regent was there things would have been different. 

But things had changed. Now Aimeric was living away from his family. He had found someone who was flesh and blood and who showered him with time and attention. 

And Aimeric was spying on him in the service of a man who was merely a memory to him. 

“I just want to know,” he finally replied. 

“Well, I’ll check his schedule and see if he has any time available.” Another prompt reply. But then, after a long pause, there was a follow up text: “But he’s a very important man. He’s got a lot on his plate. I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.” 

Jord, meanwhile, had texted Aimeric as well. He was confirming the dinner reservation for tomorrow. “Apparently the seafood is amazing!”, he’d said. “I’m excited!” 

“Yeah,” Aimeric had texted back, a half-smile on his face. “Should be fun.” 

 

****** 

 

The next day, they went to see a movie at the mall. It was pretty mindless sci-fi fare, full of things exploding in space. Aimeric and Jord walked out of the movie holding hands, Aimeric leaning against Jord as he made fun of a particularly stupid plot point, as Jord laughed along good-naturedly. But they both stopped as a woman approached them with glossy fliers in hand. 

“You two look like such a cute couple,” she said, with the forced smile of someone who had been at her job too long. “You really should check out the special that we’re offering! It’s a really good deal.” 

Jord reached out to take a pamphlet from her. Aimeric leaned over to see what it was. In a tacky gold font, it said, “SOULMATE SPECIAL! Buy two rings, show us your matching tattoos, and we’ll engrave the words for you FREE! Big savings. Certain restrictions apply.”

Aimeric’s mouth quirked. Jord just stammered out, “We, uh, we don’t –.” 

The woman’s face was a study in slowly dawning horror. “Oh I’m sorry I just thought –,” she began. 

“Thanks for the flier,” Aimeric cut in. This was not shaping up to be a conversation he really wanted to have right now. He gave her his best version of a smile, and then looked up to Jord. “Let’s keep walking?” 

They had not talked about their tattoos since their second date – well, first real date, in Aimeric’s mind. Jord was frowning as they walked. The first trash can they passed, Jord threw the flier away. Aimeric just watched him do it. There was a strange, dry feeling in his mouth. 

“Sorry about that,” Jord muttered when he returned. “I know how you feel about it –.” 

“How are you sure?” Aimeric asked all at once. Jord’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I mean,” Aimeric tried again, his tongue tripping over the words, “about the soulmates thing. You’ve never seemed to have any doubts. How – do you feel so sure about it?”

Aimeric could feel the tips of his cheeks burning. It was probably far too big of a question to have dropped on someone like that. But Jord just looked pensive. He was quiet for a moment, and finally he said, “I don’t know.” Some of Aimeric’s confusion must have reached his face, because Jord just shrugged with a smile. “I guess it just – seemed right. So I never really questioned it. I think it’s just about what makes you happy. Love isn’t something that should have you stressed out or worried. It’s supposed to be – calming. It should just feel right.” 

He gave one last shrug in conclusion. He looked a little self-conscious. Aimeric was staring in amazement. He opened his mouth and shut it again. Words were utterly failing him. 

“Jord – I,” he finally managed. He wasn’t sure how he was going to finish that sentence. 

“Don’t worry about it, Aimeric,” Jord said. He playfully tousled Aimeric’s hair. Aimeric gave a small smile. “It’s just a stupid flier, that’s all. What really matters: how space magic stopped an alien invasion.” 

Jord seemed content to let the subject matter go, but Aimeric kept mulling over what Jord had said long after they’d gone back to making fun of the movie. 

 

******* 

 

Love was supposed to be calming. Love wasn’t supposed to be confusing. 

Calm did not come easily to Aimeric. But the more time he spent with Jord, the more he felt like he might be getting the hang of it. 

And then, one day, Jord left his phone on the couch and it went off again. 

Jord was busy in the kitchen, boiling pasta for dinner. There wasn’t much for Aimeric to do, so he’d been relaxing on the sofa. When Jord’s phone beeped at him, he yelled across the apartment. “Jord, you’ve got a message.”

“Is it from Laurent?” Jord called out in response. 

Aimeric looked. He breathed a sigh of relief when it was not from Laurent. “I don’t know what this email is,” he said. “It looks automated. It just says – backup1, low disk space or something.” 

It seemed innocuous enough to Aimeric, but Jord swore and walked out of the kitchen. “It’s that stupid cluster Laurent wanted set up,” he said as way of explanation. The confusion must have been evident on Aimeric’s face. “Said we couldn’t trust anything in the cloud, had to have our own servers. It doesn’t bother _him_ how many issues it causes me. But hey, at least it keeps me employed.” He leaned over and gave a suddenly distracted Aimeric a kiss. “Will you look after the pasta for me? I’ve got to take care of this.” 

“Sure,” Aimeric said. He walked to the kitchen half in a daze. Nausea threatened to overwhelm him. 

His father and the Regent had a lot of resources at their disposal. They desperately wanted to win this government contract. No doubt Aimeric was only one part of their plans. If they hadn’t been able to find anything yet, it might be because they didn’t know where to look. Like, for example, at a private server cluster. 

His father hadn’t sent him Jord’s name because he thought it particularly likely that Aimeric would stumble upon his soulmate. He had set him after Jord because Jord was head of security and would know details like that. 

And now Aimeric knew that, too. 

 

******* 

 

His father had once told him that the most important thing when lying was to make sure to remember what was real and what was fake. 

Aimeric called in sick to work the next day. He took the train to where Jord worked instead. The USB drive that his father had given him rattled loosely in his pocket. The whole way he thought about his father’s words. 

Somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten his father’s advice. He’d forgotten what was real and what was fake. Today, he was going to put that right. 

Aimeric had seen some photos online of the office where Laurent and Jord worked. It was so small, compared to the headquarters where he knew his father spent the day. In person the building seemed squatter somehow. There was a scanner on the outside of the door. Aimeric knocked and had to wait for someone to let him in. He briefly contemplated that he should have made a copy of the RFID scanner that he’d sent back to his father. 

Jord sat near the back of the office. He looked surprised when Aimeric walked over to his desk. “What are you doing here?” he asked, even as he smiled when Aimeric leaned behind him to wrap his arms around him and give him a quick kiss him on the cheek. 

“What,” asked Aimeric, feigning shock, “I can’t come over and surprise you every once in a while?” 

“I thought you had work today,” Jord pointed out. 

“I do,” Aimeric said. He saw Laurent walking towards them. Aimeric straightened up quickly. Laurent’s demeanor was icy, but there was no missing the intense distrust in his expression. Aimeric continued, “I’m actually here to see your boss.”

He had asked Jord for Laurent’s number yesterday. He’d called a few hours later. 

“Aimeric,” Laurent said. There was no warmth to his tone. “Why don’t you come in to my office.”

Laurent’s office was near the front of the building. It was a nice office. Reasonably big. Very private. It looked fairly tidy at first glance, but there were some telltime signs of disorder: the whiteboard was filled with notes sprawling in every direction and even the glass table had been written on with dry erase marker. Laurent took a seat behind his desk. Aimeric pulled up a chair for himself. 

“You had...quite the accusation to level against your father and the Regent yesterday,” Laurent began. No wasting time, then. 

Aimeric straightened up in his chair. He had confessed everything to Laurent when he’d gotten home. Laurent often worked late hours. He’d still been at the office when Aimeric called. 

“What proof do you have?” Laurent continued. 

Aimeric reached in to his pocket and pulled out the USB drive. “Every email, every text message, everything I have been sent. It’s all in there. You can see for yourself.” Laurent picked it up and examined it carefully. “My father and the Regent were careful. There’s not a lot there. But taken with other evidence, perhaps it will be enough.” 

Laurent paused for a moment before he spoke again. “And why,” he started, “should I believe that you’ve suddenly turned against your father and the CEO of his company? You saw the light? Trust me. My uncle forced me out of my father’s own company. I know that he is full of tricks. I suspect that you are one of them. So convince me otherwise.” Laurent raised an eyebrow. “Oh and – don’t tell me this is about Jord, because I won’t believe you.” 

Aimeric flushed. He felt a sudden surge of animosity towards Laurent. It didn’t really make sense to be angry: it was a reasonable question to ask. But some contrary part of him still wanted to grab that USB back from him. But no. He’d made his choice. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of his chair. He forced himself to stay calm. He thought of Jord. 

“I just realized –,” he started, starting resolutely down at the desk as he spoke, “I’d gotten it all confused in my head. I thought that my father was looking out for me. I thought the Regent was looking out for me. But I started to realize: they were both just pushing me a lot of lies. They’d been pushing me a lot of lies for years. And I had believed them for so long. But the truth was right in front of me. I just had to see it.” 

Laurent gave him a long, calculating look. Aimeric made himself meet Laurent’s gaze. They were both quiet for a moment. Finally, Laurent looked down again at the USB drive. 

“So why hand it over to me? Why not hand it over to the police?” 

Aimeric gave a small shrug. “It’s dangerous. If my father and the Regent found out what I’ve done – it’s going to be bad for me. If I share it with anyone, I need to know that it’ll be used effectively. The history that you have with the Regent – I think if anyone wants to see him fall, it’s you. So however best this information can be used, I think you’ll use it.” 

If Aimeric hadn’t known better, he would have said that Laurent was smiling. 

“I’ll see what I can do. Is there anything you want in exchange?”

Aimeric thought for a moment. “If there’s a criminal case – I’ll testify, if it’ll get any charges against me dropped. And,” he had to swallow before he could get out the words, “please don’t tell Jord. I’d rather tell himself. I just have to – figure out how.” 

Laurent nodded. “Sounds reasonable enough. I’ll see what I can do. As for telling the truth,” he let out a rueful laugh. “Good luck with that.” 

 

***** 

 

The police raided the Regent’s company two weeks after. Almost despite himself, Aimeric was impressed. Laurent moved fast. No doubt he had connections. It was a major news story: his phone had notified him the moment the story broke. But Aimeric put his phone away when Jord came back to the bench where he was sitting with ice cream. It was a nice summer day. A good day to spend at the park. 

“Anything interesting?” Jord asked as he handed Aimeric his cone. 

“Nope,” Aimeric said. He’d told Jord the truth about what he’d been doing a week ago. It had been a very difficult night. Aimeric hadn’t realized just how many secrets he’d been keeping until that point. What he had done to Jord. What the Regent had done to him. What his father had let the Regent do to him. Jord had been angry, been concerned, but ultimately been forgiving in a way that Aimeric could never quite imagine himself being. 

It was beautiful outside. The lingering memories of his father and the Regent seemed so inconsequential against the summer sun. 

Jord sat on the bench next to Aimeric and casually wrapped the arm not currently occupied with ice cream around him. They ate in silence for a few minutes. It felt peaceful. Aimeric turned to Jord and, doing his best to keep his voice casual, said, “You know, I was thinking – about that ring sale. We should go back. It really was a good deal.” 

It took Jord a moment to understand what he’d said. But slowly he started to smile, almost in disbelief. Aimeric thought maybe he could make the message a little clearer. He leaned forward and gave Jord a quick kiss, before he said, “I love you, Jord.”


End file.
